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'Not my son': Mandela's final indignity

Neil McMahon

The grandson of ailing former South African President Nelson Mandela, Mandla Mandela, talks to journalists during a press conference at his home. Photo: AFP

Of all the clouds to darken Nelson Mandela's final days, this seems the cruellest: the old man kept alive by machines as his family plunges deeper into an ugly feud that has seen the remains of three of his children exhumed and reburied amid a dispute over who is the rightful heir to his legacy.

It was perhaps inevitable there would be tensions. This is a man whose long life included three marriages and the accumulation of considerable wealth and a priceless global stature. But no one expected this: an uncivil war that culminated yesterday in one of his grandsons, Mandla, trashing other family members in public after losing a court battle over the resting place of the three deceased Mandela children - and, by extension, the final resting place of Mr Mandela himself.

At the moment it seems that anyone and everyone can come and say ‘I am a Mandela’ and demand to be part of decision-making in this family

Not only did Mandla question the paternity of two of his brothers, Mbuso and Andile, and the maternity of a third, Ndaba, he also claimed that his own son was the product of an affair between his ex-wife and his brother.

Mandla Mandela, grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela, says his own son is the result of infidelity between his brother and his ex-wife. Photo: AFP

“Mbuso impregnated my wife,” he said, on live television in South Africa.

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He accused relatives of milking the patriarch and his public renown for financial gain. And he claimed that Mr Mandela himself had deemed that he, Mandla, was the rightful heir to chieftainship of the Thembu tribe.

“In the past few days I have been the target of attacks from all sorts of individuals wanting a few minutes of fame and media attention at my expense,” Mandla said. “At the moment it seems that anyone and everyone can come and say ‘I am a Mandela’ and demand to be part of decision-making in this family. Individuals decided to jump on the Mandela wagon.”

Re-admitted: Nelson Mandela. Photo: Getty Images

But Mandla, 39, stood alone, having taken on the rest of the family in court and lost.

Two years ago he had had the remains of the three deceased children - including his own father - exhumed from graves in the village of Qunu, where Mandela was raised, and reburied at Mvezo, his birthplace. At stake was the patriarch’s final burial place, with Mandla accused of violating his grandfather's own wishes to be buried in Qunu in pursuit of a pot of gold: his plans to cash in on the flood of visitors that will inevitably flock to the Mandela gravesite.

But a court this week ordered the remains returned to Qunu, and yesterday they were.

However, it seems unlikely to be the end of a family feud that has carried on for years, with South Africans stunned by the spectacle of the Mandela heirs clashing over everything from money to the decision of two Mandela grand-daughters to take part in a reality TV show.

Perhaps the only blessing is that the old man himself is unaware of the wretched depths to which the conflict has sunk. Among the documents tendered to court in the battle of the exhumed bodies was an affidavit from the family, signed by among others his third wife Graca Machel, declaring his health to be in a “perilous state”. Another document said the 94-year-old’s health had “taken a turn for the worst [sic] and that the Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off”.

"Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability," the document says.

South African President Jacob Zuma has since denied Mr Mandela is in a “vegetative state”, but there is little doubt the end is very close - with the resolution of the court battle over the graves the final obstacle to the family making the hardest decision of all.

In her first public comments since her husband’s condition deteriorated in recent weeks, his wife told a gathering in Johannesburg: “Although Madiba sometimes may be uncomfortable, very few times he is in pain. But he is fine.”

Making no comment on the family disputes, she thanked the nation for its prayers and said: “The best gift that he has given is the gift of unity."

Nelson's extended family

Nelson Mandela has been married three times.

His 1944 marriage to Evelyn Mase ended in March 1958. They had four children: Thembi, who died in 1969, aged 24; Makaziwe, who died aged nine months in 1948; Magkatho, who died of AIDS in 2005; and another daughter Makaziwe, now 59.

Mandela was married to his second wife Winnie in June 1958. They have two daughters: Zenani and Zindzi.

After his 1996 divorce from Winnie - now known as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela - he married Graca Machel on his 80th birthday in 1998. Machel is the widow of the former president of Mozambique, Samora Machel.

Mandela has 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

The grandson at the centre of the current dispute, Mandla, is the son of Mandela’s son from his first marriage, Magkatho. The three Mandela children whose remains have been exhumed are those of Magkatho, Thembi and the baby Makaziwe.